(April 8, 2004). PAFA. Ben Kamihira memorial service. Remarks (AMs), ephemera, correspondence, 2004

Away from PMA, d'Harnoncourt remained a frequent speaker on behalf of the arts and a constant examiner of the role of museums. Based on these files, her most frequent topic was artists--speaking at their exhibitions or dedications of works of art, at award ceremonies and at memorial services. Almost all were friends or long-time associates, including "Jackie" Matisse Monnier, Judith Rothschild, Isamu Noguchi and Ellsworth Kelly. Twice she presented an award to Andrew Wyeth--including the 2004 event that also honored his son Jamie. Another artist who figures prominently here is Marcel Duchamp, of whose work d'Harnoncourt is considered an expert. He is the subject of four of her lectures, and the springboard to one she gave in 1987 entitled, "The bottlerack in the museum: reflections on contemporary art, museums, and the public."

Beginning with a 1997 symposium in Tokyo, d'Harnoncourt and her colleagues used the approaching millennium as reason to reflect on the past performance of museums and what to anticipate for the future. Topics for the 21st century included museum management, the role of curators, and the continued need for arts and liberal studies. While "Back to the future" was a theme d'Harnoncourt used in speaking of museums in general, she noted it most often in her talks about PMA, and how its past defined its future. Those and other PMA-related remarks are in the Anne d'Harnoncourt Records, in the "Remarks" subseries to the "Long-term subjects" series.

Also of note in this subseries are the files pertaining to the 2002 lectures, "Art museums and public trust," presented by Harvard University Art Museums. D'Harnoncourt participated in the lectures as well as the later roundtable discussion about them. She declined, however, to have her remarks included in the 2004 publication regarding both events entitled, "Whose muse? Art museums and the public trust." In related correspondence, d'Harnoncourt noted that the "written context is so different than the context of a series of talks," and that the transcript of her talk would need substantial additions to make it publication-worthy. Being unable to commit the time necessary to make these changes, d'Harnoncourt decided not to contribute to the publication except for her comments to the roundtable discussion.

The only recorded interview of d'Harnoncourt in this collection is her discussion with the host of the Drexel InterView, a half-hour program produced by Drexel University (Philadelphia, PA). Documented here in DVD format, the interview, which aired on April 12, 2005, is available online via the University's YouTube channel, which is referenced below. When asked about some of the Museum's major transformations, d'Harnoncourt cited the reinstallation of the Museum's European art galleries. She identified it as one of the most significant initiatives during her tenure as Museum director, as its rearrangement of works of art literally allowed visitors to "walk through time." She also talked at length about the inspiration behind blockbuster exhibitions, particularly the Museum's major retrospective of the surrealist artist Salvador Dalí, which was on display at the time of the interview. Other topics d'Harnoncourt touched upon included the influence of her father, museum trends, and the new opportunities offered by the Internet to reach different audiences.